GREENFIELD — Almost 200 market-rate apartments that would have the look and feel of single-family homes are planned for the city’s northwestern corner.
Redwood Apartment Neighborhoods of Independence, Ohio, is bringing the 185 units in 25 single-story buildings to 26.45 acres on the south side of County Road 300N west of Franklin Street. The site is immediately west of Beckenholdt Park.
Each apartment will have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the units will have total areas ranging from about 1,300 to 1,700 square feet.
Russell Brown, a lawyer with Indianapolis-based Clark, Quinn, Moses, Scott & Grahn, LLP, representing Redwood Apartment Neighborhoods, said at a Greenfield Plan Commission meeting earlier this month that the apartments will have the appearance of single-family attached units and have attached two-car garages.
“While it is a multi-family neighborhood, it feels to the resident like a single-family home,” Brown said.
Monthly rent payments will range from about $1,500 to $2,000, according to Brown.
“We believe this housing stock is needed in your community, as it doesn’t exist within a pretty significant radius from this location,” he added.
Joan Fitzwater, Greenfield planning director, agreed.
“This is a great area actually to be providing a variety of residential options with all of the industrial uses along Mt. Comfort and 300 that are offering a lot of jobs, so there will be people that need to find places to live and work,” she said. The site is a 10- to 15-minute drive from the Mt. Comfort Corridor and also is close to Progress Park in Greenfield, where Elanco Animal Health has its headquarters.
Fitzwater pointed out the city isn’t currently considering annexing any land.
“Therefore we are challenged with how to provide the necessary housing for all of our new businesses and new manufacturing plants that are locating to Greenfield in our great location, and how we provide that without annexing new property is through higher density,” she said. “Higher density makes sense. You spend less money on public services such as police and fire, and it’s just a wise future land use decision to look at that.”
The community will be developed in two phases — one with 17 buildings and 132 units, and the second with eight buildings and 53 units.
“Redwood is not an age-restricted community, but its target markets and historical residents are young professionals and empty-nesters,” Brown said.
The development will also include trail connections to Beckenholdt Park.
“I think that Beckenholdt will be enjoyed by a lot more people, and that is a really good thing,” Fitzwater said.
The plan commission approved the development standards for Redwood Apartment Neighborhoods’ proposal 8-0.
Redwood Apartment Neighborhoods owns and manages more than 12,000 apartment homes in nearly 100 neighborhoods throughout Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to the firm’s website.
